Time Moves Clockwise
by wayward-river
Summary: She lets him unbind her hair. Collection of 100 word drabbles. Various games, characters, and pairings.
1. In Three's

**Title:** In threes  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link/Zelda (SS universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Romance/general**  
>Prompt:<strong> Wide open spaces

* * *

><p>He stares at her, the wide open spaces of her smile.<p>

Link observes the worlds in threes; she takes the first place, her eyes the second, her lips the third. Sometimes her smile is a songless bird, curled in melancholy. Other times, it's the softness of white roses at dawn. He likes to remember her that way, hair the color of a goldenrod-spring, (but he sometimes can't remember at all) and a smile like the first rain. Everything else is an afterthought, half-born in his dreams.

She stands before him now, but her smile is full of wide, open spaces.


	2. Apastron

**Title:** Apastron  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link/Zelda (TP universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Shadow

* * *

><p>She is familiar, and she isn't.<p>

His nights are divided by memories of her. Which one, he never knows, but - it's still _her_, or the phantom of her. His Princess, his Queen, his - something. Link finds difficulty describing it, because he's never been good with words, only thought, feeling and killing. He remembers her, but he doesn't. In this endless cycle of death, rebirth, transformation, there's always him – the Hero – and her, the Princess. Different faces, different lips, eyes and hands, different words. Different deaths. They always meet, somehow, always, they're -

They're two strangers, casting different shadows.


	3. Mantle

**Title:** Mantle  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Zelda (Oot universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Enough

* * *

><p>A world without destiny is one without law, her mother said. Zelda thinks she's had enough of destiny. She wears destiny like unwanted jewels; she wears her tragedy and silence like sheets pulled over her head. Destiny marches through her, a slow parade of skeletons, who carve Wisdom into her head at night. She drags destiny behind her like a royal train; Zelda is sure she even breathes it. Her world is <em>made<em> of this thing called "destiny", a word without meaning or name. She's even been called it – the "Princess of Destiny" is a heavy title for a child.


	4. The world is full of lies and illusions

**Title:** The world is full of lies and illusions  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link/Ilia (TP universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General

* * *

><p>The Link in her bed isn't the Link she left. Ilia watches him sleep, sometimes, on the nights when he comes home. She's seen him prowling the edges of Ordon Village at twilight, like a wolf that's lost its mate, and everything about him is <em>lupine<em>, now, that Hyrule is safe. (But "safe" is a dangerous word, she knows). When moonlight shivers down into their bedroom and upon his sleeping face, she knows _he_ isn't _him_. Ilia watches him sleep, and if she leans her head close enough, she can hear him muttering a name, a dark word like "midnight."


	5. Sin and neurosis

**Title:** Sin and neurosis  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Ghirahim/Zelda (SS)  
><strong>Rating<strong>: G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General  
><strong>Prompt<strong>: Sin

* * *

><p>There is sin in everything she does. Only Ghirahim can see it, because he has eyes for it, because he's sinned himself, a thousand-million times. He can think of no other explanation for it; it has to be sin, the way she walks, the shatter-blue of her eyes. There has to be sin in a Goddess reducing herself to mortal form. He knows nothing of <em>love<em> or _trust_, only _sin_ and _fury_. There has to be sin in the purity of her, this girl with golden hair masquerading as divine. There has to be sin in wanting her, he knows.


	6. Phoenix

**Title:** Phoenix  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link/Midna  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General  
><strong>Prompt: <strong>Wild

* * *

><p>There is nothing wilder than the fire of twilight, and the distant, anxious swell of nightfall. There is nothing wilder than her eyes, burning autumn red against the setting sun. Link watches as this figure rises from the ground, born anew and fierce from her impish form. She is tall and radiant and everything he imagined her to be in his dreams. She teases him for staring, though he can't help it. She has eyes that can shatter worlds. There is wildness even as she cries, and wildness when she leaves him for her Twilight. There is wildness in loneliness.<p> 


	7. Coda

**Title:** Coda  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Zelda (Oot universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General  
><strong>Prompt: <strong>Fantasy

* * *

><p>She thinks of them, the spaces and the fantasies.<p>

She thinks of the spaces between herself; the guise and the woman, the Princess and the Sage. She is all these things at once: she is the Sheikah with redwater eyes, the mask. She is the woman inside it, bound to her guilt. She is the Princess, young and hopeful, dreaming in riddles. She is the Sage, the bringer of light, the Wisdom to _his_ Courage. Zelda (or Sheik, or Princess, or Sage, she no longer knows) is all of these things, but those are fantasies, no more real than darkness.


	8. Follower

**Title: **Follower  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link (Oot universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General  
><strong>Prompt: <strong>Time

* * *

><p>Time casts a shadow on his back.<p>

It follows him as surely as his own thoughts; it lurks behind his footsteps, stealing his breath. It reminds him of the seven years he'd spent slumbering, away from those he loved, from those he has failed to save. And though he holds Time between his fingertips, he knows, he knows, he does not control time: time controls him. It reminds him with every swing of the Master Sword, each time he raises the ocarina to his lips; _you were late_, it hisses, _keep up, Hero – I'll follow you, wherever you go._

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN:<strong> _My beta **arbutus blossoms** wrote a lovely fan-tribute to my other fic, _Who By Fire_, so I encourage you all to go read her fic and review it :) thank you!


	9. Hemophilia

**Title:** Hemophilia  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Midna, Link  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General  
><strong>Prompt: <strong>Almost empty

* * *

><p>There is a blankness to this, this act of death.<p>

Midna has seen her share of death, each newer and more horrible to the last, but this death is unlike those. He does not writhe, or beg, or pray; he lies in her arms, quite calmly despite the blood on his lips, breathing slowly. At least I did it, he says modestly, reaching toward her face, and she lets him, because it's her real face, not an imp's. And she wonders blankly why his blood does not clot, how she'll remove it from her hands, how she'll wash him away.


	10. Time dances

**Title:** Time dances  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Ghirahim/Zelda  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General  
><strong>Prompt: <strong>A dream

* * *

><p>First and last, he says, close to her face.<p>

First and last, because our time is short, and _time,_ is not on our side. He smiles, pale pointed teeth, gleaming – he guides her around a room without corners. They waltz. Zelda is dizzy, following his footsteps, hand in his, Ghirahim's breath cold, silver shimmering slivers. He dances with her, dreamlike – no dream, this, he whispers, sibilant. She lets him lead, and when it ends, he kisses her lips, bites until she bleeds – and she claws away his face, and she wants to scream and – she wakes.


	11. By silence

**Title:** By silence  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link, Zelda (Oot)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General

**Prompt:** Silence

* * *

><p>She takes from him the words he cannot speak.<p>

Zelda stands so near to Link she can hear his breath, the only sound he makes. Gone is the child she met those years ago; the man who stands before her has been changed by the cruel tides of time. He has vanquished Ganondorf, having sacrificed his childhood to do so – a childhood, she knows, which must be returned. Zelda takes from him the words he cannot speak, and the ocarina from his hand. She takes from him the toil and horrors. She takes his words. He gives her his silence.


	12. Silvern

**Title:** Silvern  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link, Ruto (Oot universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> A memory

* * *

><p>"I thought you had forgotten me."<p>

He looks at her – Ruto – standing across from him, sleek body backlit by the Sacred Realm's holy light.

She pauses.

"I thought you had died, too."

Link doesn't know what to think of her, now, doesn't remember her _this way._ She is strange, beautiful and sad. The sadness clings to her like scent to rain.

Then, she smiles, and they're children again.

(But he's forgotten how to be a child).

"I still remember our engagement, though."

He grins, just a little. Her smile grows sorrowful.

"But I'll have to be satisfied with a memory."


	13. Fog

**Title:** Fog  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link (MM universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Lost

Through the fog, he can sometimes hear the laughter of children.

But he knows these are illusions, magicked together by specters that haunt these woods, to lure him into the fog's chilling arms. The Lost Woods wears a coat of mossy green and birdcall, an illusion of an illusion. Link squints ahead of him, and if he concentrates hard enough, he can see _her, _emerald eyes shining. These woods are her heart and her home; a place where no moral should wander, but he searches nevertheless, because it's better to be haunted by specters than by memories. Link wanders on.


	14. Easiest

**Title:** Easiest  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Zelda (SS universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Surrender

It would be easiest to surrender, offer herself, body and soul, to this demon which haunts her footsteps.

It would be easiest, she tells the night. It would be easiest, because this world is terrifying and alien; the solid ground beneath her feet feels dead, and the sky above her lacks warmth. The Surface is nothing as she imagined it. It would be easiest, she tells herself, when the darkness folds around her like hands, when Link's laughter fills her head at night. And although Zelda knows she can't, not ever, giving up would be easiest. It would be easiest.


	15. If

**Title:** If  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Zelda (post-Oot)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> If

* * *

><p>If only –<p>

Zelda plans her days around this singular word: If. When she rises from bed, her pale skin losing more color by the day, she thinks of this word: If. When she prepares for the mornings (primping and pulling and preening as any good Queen should do) she scribbles this word onto the palm of her hand: If. This word will not let her forget: If, if, if she had done differently. If, if, if, she had not sent him back in time. If her regrets did not swirl together like so much ink. If only she could forget.


	16. Phantasmagoria

**Title:** Phantasmagoria  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link (post-TP)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Ghosts

* * *

><p>He sometimes mistakes the moon for her smile, and the darkness as her hands. Her ghost nestles close to his flesh, snickering mad syllables into his ear when he can't sleep. <em>What is it, Hero? Princess got your tongue? Hahah!<em> Link knows she has found a place in his head and in his heart, haunting him as surely as any ghost. He tries to forget her with glass bottles and fairy magic. He sometimes mistakes twilight for her eyes and silk for her hair. Though she has left him, Midna's shadow lingers, whispering against his neck like a passing ghost.


	17. Closing doors

**Title:** Closing doors  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link/Ilia (TP)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Escape

* * *

><p>"I'm afraid of closing doors," she admits to him one starless night, sucking down a bottle of cheap wine. Ilia leans against his shoulder, body pressed against his, her free hand scribbling nonsense onto his palm. None of what she says makes sense, but Link is too drunk to care. The night sky above them tilts and totters. "I'm afraid that they'll close before I can escape," Ilia continues, drunken-slurring into his ear. She giggles. She smells like sunlight feels. Link smiles lazily. "I'm afraid they'll close too soon," she says. Her hand stops tracing. "I'm afraid of closed doors."<p> 


	18. The fall of Leda

**Title:** The fall of Leda  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Ghirahim/Zelda  
><strong>Rating:<strong> T (for suggestive themes)  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Temptation

* * *

><p>Oh, how pretty she would look, pale beneath him. Ghirahim imagines her neck wrought with the marks of his hands and teeth, bruises blooming up along her flesh, petechiae-red. He imagines taking her without mercy or tenderness, not like a human can, because demons cannot make love; he imagines her flaxen hair curled around his fingers, her lips pressing against his throat – yes!– as she moans his name to shadows. He imagines her legs and her arms and her neck, soft against his scratching fingernails. Ghirahim plays her over and over in his head, an image he can never have.<p> 


	19. Justice

**Title:** Justice  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Ganondorf (Oot universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Justice

Ganondorf has long ago given up on justice. Nevertheless, compelled by some divine force, he seeks it still, in every corner of Hyrule. He searches the deserts and forests, through the most hellish caves and rapids. He searches for it on the killing edge of his blades, wrought by Gerudo hands and Gerudo heat; he need not hold these blades to be reminded of his people. Their cries darken his skin. Their hungry bellies lend his swords their bite. Their blood reddens his hair. It is for them and them alone that Ganondorf seeks justice, in every corner of Hyrule.


	20. She watches

**Title:** She watches  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Tetra, Link (WW)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General

**Prompt:** On the water

* * *

><p>When he thinks she isn't looking, Tetra watches him.<p>

He hangs from the bow of the ship, with the sea-salt air whipping through his golden hair, one arm outstretched as if he could take the whole ocean into his grasp. She looks at his hands, which have remembered death with too much fondness, for one young as he. Whereas Tetra has been sand-beaten and storm-worn by the ocean, Link has been toughened differently; his hands carry the weight of destiny, the weight of a sword too ancient for even his time-roughened hands. Tetra watches him, when she knows he isn't looking.


	21. She Said She Promised

**Title:** She Said She Promised  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Impa, Zelda (Oot)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Promises

* * *

><p>In the morning, Impa comes to brush her hair and weave stories into her braids, soft Sheikah inflections about ancient Heroes and Demonic hordes. Zelda sits and listens, although the tales never change. Afterward, Impa kneels before her and stares at her with eyes like blood. 'Promise me this, Your Highness,' she says. 'Promise me that, when the time comes, you won't forget the lessons I've taught you, because there will be a day when I can no longer protect you. Promise me, promise me.' Zelda nods. Impa smiles and kisses her forehead. Seven years later, Zelda keeps her promise.<p> 


	22. Identity

**Title:** Identity  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Zelda (general)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Identity

* * *

><p>She is a mirror within a mirror.<p>

Peering into her reflection is like peering past time; she is a double, a triple, an infinite scroll of memories, all shared by one name: Zelda. Her own name feels borrowed upon her tongue. _Zelda._ If she looks too long into the mirror, her reflection changes faces, smiling back at her with eyes that have been erased. _Zelda._ Their fingers pull through the glass and bring her inside. _Zelda._ They steal the breath from her lungs, fill her with sawdust. _Zelda._ Until she is nothing but a name, a reflection rippling across time.


	23. Edge of The Map

**Title:** Edge of the Map  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Link/Midna (implied)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Genre:<strong> General**  
>Prompt:<strong> Regret

* * *

><p>They find their Queen wandering the very brinks of Twilight, steeped in the mire of her own loneliness. It clings to her like water. Her subjects whisper through the empty court halls. It's uncharacteristic of her; some say she is possessed by some demon of lore. Others claim she is heartbroken by the Hero they've met only in stories and half-spoken rumor. It's not like her to regret, and each day she wanders closer and closer to the edge, and they fear one day she'll simply tumble down into the darkness below. She never does. But she comes very close.<p> 


	24. Unfettered

**Title**: Unfettered  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Ganondorf/Zelda (general universe)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G**  
>Prompt:<strong> Bind

* * *

><p>Sometimes, when the moon silvers the mountains and washes trees of their color, she lets him unbind her hair. Ganondorf knows these moments are worth more than Hyrule itself. Zelda sits and watches him in the mirror, smiles, mysteriously. He keeps his crude hands gentle, for the gold trapped within her crown would pale jewels. He dares not besmirch its beauty. Slowly, he untwists the heavy braid, lets each lock swirl free, lays a strand against her bare shoulder, touch lingering. She smiles, watches him with eyes bluer than anything. The last strand falls free; he kisses it in parting.<p> 


End file.
